Motorists willing to be lured onto public transport

IRELAND has Europe’s second highest percentage of motorists but they could be tempted to leave their cars at home if public transport was easier to use.

A survey of all 27 EU countries found 68% of Irish people drive for their daily activities — a statistic shared with Slovakia and trumped only by Cyprus.

But 70% of those whose car is their constant companion would use public transport more often if there was integrated ticketing enabling them to buy one ticket covering bus, train and tram.

More frequent services, greater reliability, cheaper fares, more attractive terminals and easier access to online timetable information and online ticket sales would also make motorists consider switching to public transport.

On integrated ticketing at least, there is some good news in store. Although a ‘one card covers all’ scheme has been under discussion for 10 years, the system is finally due to go live for a substantial number of commuters this autumn.

Tom Manning of the Railway Procurement Agency which was tasked with developing the system, said testing of smart cards covering Dublin Bus and Luas services was under way, would be intensified in May and would be available to the public later in the year, probably from September.

“After that the scheme will be extended to Irish Rail and Bus Eireann and then the private operators who have signed up to it as well. That’s scheduled to take place in 2012,” he said.

The system will test the claim by motorists that integrated ticketing would entice them on to public transport but other replies to the survey carried out by the European Commission would be equally interesting to challenge.

For while the Irish clearly love their cars, 74% said they would be happy to have models that went slower if it meant they produced fewer carbon emissions and 65% said they would sacrifice size and switch to a smaller model if the result was a greener drive.

Similarly, 59% said they would accept cars with a shorter range that had to be refuelled more frequently if they were more environmentally friendly and, surprising given the economic situation, 61% said they would be willing to pay more for a greener car.